


We will Brave the Stars

by burnintoash (funnymorning)



Series: To Boldly Go [2]
Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, And a weird love ode to Michael Burnham, M/M, This is a prequel, both of them are significant characters but this is barely pre-nielwoon, the nielwoon tag is a trap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-18 20:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14221464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnymorning/pseuds/burnintoash
Summary: A war fought; a friend found; and a future that Woojin is hoping for





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, I would just like to preface with the fact that this is a 100% nerd word vomit. Normally, I would take in consideration of the readers, what people would like to read, what scene would be good, etc, but this one is written purely for me because Star Trek fictions are my all time favourites and I wanted to write something similar. So, if this does not feel like what I would normally write, please just note that it is not meant to. Also, I try my best not to use too much Star Trek terminology but then gave up half way because I can't write a Star Trek-fusion fic without using its terminology. So, I am sorry if some of you gets lost in this geek maze.
> 
> Secondly, this is kind of a prequel to the actual stories that I want to write and as usual as the case is with me, it turned into 10k something words.
> 
> Lastly, thank you, as always, for reading.

"Red Alert!"

 

The blaring alarm accompanied by Burnham's ship-wide announcement only makes Woojin even more stressed and scared, which he did not think was possible. Woojin fucking hates red alerts. Apart from the very real chance that he can die the very next minute either from the ship-wide system failure or an incoming photon torpedo or a blow in the side of the ship that will creative a massive hull breach, sucking everyone into the airless space - take your pick, red alerts make everybody scared and nervous and panicking, and it is just an all-around stressful and taxing environment to be in. Which kind of is the point, Woojin thinks, for everyone to be prepared for the worst.

 

Still, he would appreciate if the alarm can stop blaring at the maximum volume when his fingers are already shaking from the anxiety, barely hitting the right keys on the keyboard in front of him.

 

"Any luck?" Officer Arex, the acting chief engineer (because Officer Valeria, the actual chief engineer had been knocked down at the first blow to the engine room and has yet to gain back consciousness and none of them could afford to send her to the sickbay because every single one of them is too busy trying not to die) asks and Woojin nods clumsily. 

 

"Two minutes. Why the hell do we have so many protocols for the backup drive?"

 

"You want to risk having the main warp drive and the backup drive accidentally running at the same time?" Arex says in his usual heavily accented Standard. "We would barely get a second before the two drives clash and blow ourselves into piece."

 

"Yeah, let's not talk about blowing ourselves into pieces now. How about that?" Woojin grunts. Arex goes on in the background about protocols and the danger of using opposing energy-sourced drives and Woojin just lets him because he knows this is how Arex tends to distract himself, by filling the tense atmosphere of the explosion and tremors and the (hopefully only fainted and not dead) bodies around them with nonsensical noise, and if Woojin can focus enough, he might even be able to distract himself from the imminent threat of death.

 

"Lieutenant Park Woojin to bridge!"

 

Well, shit.

 

"Park Woojin. To bridge!" Burnham's impatient voice snaps Woojin out of his sudden shock and he quickly presses on his communicator to give an affirmative response before wrapping up on the last security protocol he has to decipher before he can bring the backup drive online. "Hey, Arex. Take over, yeah? I am just left to put in the final hash key."

 

Arex nods, climbing into the seat Woojin vacates and Woojin cannot even say bye to him before he is running out of the engine room into the smoky and messed up corridor. The engine room got a substantial hit earlier, when they got caught off-guard by the hiding Klingon warbirds and the result is even more obvious out here, with debris and injured crewmen all around him. Bless Burnham and her paranoia though because if it wasn't for the double shield she had insisted around the engine room, there would already have been a hole in where Woojin is standing and half the crew probably would have sucked out into the outer space vacuum. Sure, their warp drive is down from the first hit (because warp drives are so fucking fragile for something so powerful), but at least Woojin's dead body is not floating out there.

 

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Woojin chants intelligently and climbs over some of the debris so that he can make his way towards the turbolift to the bridge.

 

Woojin catches a glimpse of a lanky silhouette in a blue uniform and he jumps in time to catch Guanlin by the shoulder. "Guanlin, thank god. CE is down in the engine room. Can you take a look?"

 

"Valeria?" Guanlin asks. "Will do, but hyung, sickbay is overflowing right now, and I don't even know where half of our nurses are."

 

"Shit," Woojin says, this time with feelings. "Just ... check up on her sometime yeah? I need to get to the bridge before Burnham murders me."

 

"Yeah, hurry." Guanlin pushes him towards the a little bit clearer path in the blocked corridor. "I'd wish a Klingon on you before I'd wish a pissed off Burnham on you."

 

Woojin scoffs but takes off, fully sprinting towards the turbolift. 

 

"Woojin!"

 

Woojin stops in his track, his body almost betraying his brain to detour towards where Jihoon is kneeling on the ground next to an injured crewman and looking up at him. The cuts on Jihoon's face do not look deep but Woojin still wants to wipe the blood off with his hand.

 

"I.. fuck. Bridge." Woojin says eloquently and Jihoon smiles at him, like it makes sense to be smiling when about 50 Klingon warbirds are firing on them. 

 

"Go." Jihoon waves his hand. "If you die, I'll kick your ass."

 

Woojin laughs, a little too desperately. "You too. Don't die. Please."

 

"See you after we obliterate these Klingon motherfuckers." Jihoon grins, a trick of blood flowing down his cheek from the cut near his brow and Woojin grins back.

 

"You bet."

 

*

 

Woojin bites down on his nail, a habit he is trying to ditch, as the turbolift takes him up to the bridge. At least, thank god the lifts are still functioning because it would have been a long winded spiral run otherwise and he is pretty sure Burnham won't have the patience for that. 

 

He does not know what Burnham wants him for, because to be completely honest, Woojin's skills are mostly useless during combats. Sure, he might be one of the best coders Starfleet has seen in centuries, but wars are not fought with code. At least not when it comes to Klingons. He is decent at hand-to-hand combat, but he is not the one for strategies and battle plans. During any combat situation, he mostly lends out his skills in the engine room or the shield systems monitor room because at least he is good at machinery and computers, comfortable even.

 

The bridge is buzzing with both anxiety and adrenaline when Woojin steps out of the turbolift. It is not very far from what he has imagined the bridge to be like during combat - this is essentially the war room. Woojin exchanges a look with Jinyoung who is busy at his own station. Jinyoung just hooks a thumb over his shoulder at Burnham.

 

"Captain." Woojin calls and Burnham snaps her neck to take a look to him, but does not stop whatever she is saying to Jisung, and instead points towards Sruthi, the main Communications Officer, who is mapping some form of graph on the monitor in front of her. Woojin steps towards her despite being momentarily distracted by the scene in front of him; the glass pane in front of him affords him a clear view of what is going on out there, and what is going on out there is multiple Klingon warbirds of different sizes shooting photon torpedoes at him.

 

"Evasive Manoeuvre One." Burnham yells and Woojin barely gets enough time to grab onto the nearest rail because evasive manoeuvre one means Discovery is basically doing a somersault in space and it is never a fun experience for anyone involved.

 

"Hey," Woojin somehow makes it to Sruthi's station without vomiting out his lunch, and pants. "What's going on?"

 

"They are jamming our weapon systems." Sruthi says, pointing at the graph on her screen, which, now that Woojin has gotten a better look, is the location of Klingon Warbirds spread in front of Discovery. 

 

"How?" Woojin says, sitting down and belting into the chair at the empty station next to Sruthi. "Did they get into our system?"

 

"No, their warbirds are emitting some kind of low-level frequency, and our auto weapon system cannot differentiate it enough with the cosmic background waves to accurately aim."

 

"So, we are basically shooting blind?"

 

"Not me." Sungwoon says from the stations next to him and Woojin turns his head to see the security chief operating their manual cannons, which yes, _badass_ , but fucking inefficient because there is a reason they installed automated weapon systems.

 

"It takes 29.30 seconds to reload each manual cannon." Woojin comments and brings up the monitor in front of him. He is not that involved in the weaponry systems, but he has experience with filtering out unwanted frequencies. His last project on a new energy-source detector for the away team practically revolved around it. "That's enough time of all of us to die."

 

"If you know that," Burnham shouts from behind. "Get to work."

 

"On it," Woojin yells back and loads up the weapon system to familiarise himself with the infrastructure first. "Sruthi, why are you mapping their locations?"

 

"I am trying to triangulate the intensity of their frequency waves with their positions. Maybe we can get to the source. I don't think it is coming from all of them."

 

"Won't the source be on the bigger ones?" Woojin asks and quickly integrates his existing frequency omitting algorithm into the weapon systems. And that fails promptly. Shit. Of course, the weaponry infrastructure is built on a base-16 platform, not a binary. It is going to take a good minute to recompile his program into a base-16.

 

"It does not seem like it." Sruthi says and Woojin wheels his chair over to her station while his compilation runs. "The frequency seems to be bouncing around the shields of their stronger birds. It does not originate from them."

 

"Of course," Sungwoon pipes in. "Our weapon systems are not that different. If it can jam our system, it can affect theirs too. Make sense to install it somewhere off main ship."

 

"Ok, taking out all ships equipped with heavy weaponry." Sruthi replies and Woojin wheels back to his temporary station to focus on his program.

 

"Shields at 60%." Jisung announces and Woojin notices the more and more intense impact they are experiencing with every blow to the ship. 

 

"Try the automated cannons now." Woojin says, as his program finally gives in and successfully integrates into the weaponry infra. He has no time to test because he can only see the result while the system is loaded so here is to hoping.

 

Burnham must have thought the same, because she is saying "One photon round. Don't waste ammo."

 

"Thanks for the confidence, Captain!" Woojin yells and bites down on his lips as he watches Sungwoon brings up the auto-cannons online and starts loading them and within seconds, a fireball of photon energy released from their cannons shoot across the empty vacuum of space towards the army of Klingon ships in front of them.

 

Woojin gives himself a little fist-pumped  _yes_ as Sungwoon yells. "4 out of 6 targets hit!" 

 

"Ok, ok. 70% hit rate is not bad." Woojin mumbles. "Let me see if I can filter out the more intense frequencies."

 

"That's only 66.66%." Sruthi comments. 

 

"Let me have this." Woojin glares at her.

 

She does not entertain Woojin with a response, instead nods towards his station. "I sent you the mapping of the frequencies and locations. Can you whip up a quick program to triangulate the source?"

 

"Multi-tasking is my first name." Woojin nods.

 

"I thought it was Park."

 

"Goddamn it, Sruthi!"

 

Sruthi just grins and goes back to whatever she does with her much too complicated console with too many knobs and buttons, and that is coming from Woojin, whom Burnham had once called the 'computer whiz-kid'.

 

Woojin sifts through the multiple of programs he has on the ship's network and thank you, Park Woojin, for being an organised freak because it took him less than 10 seconds to find what he is looking for - a location triangulator he programmed back on Earth. He made it for a food delivery system when he was undergrad so that they can figure out the best route for their automated food delivery trucks, so the code is pretty old but the basic logic is there and he just needs to change the parameters to take in radio waves too instead of just distance. And while it is re-compiling, Woojin moves on to upgrade his frequency omitter to take in a more low-level form of radio frequency - Sruthi's chart helps because it also lists down the exact hertz of the waves she has been observing, so Woojin just inputs some of the strange ones (aka the ones that they won't find in this part of the galaxy naturally) into his system.

 

"Taking the weapon system down a while to upgrade." He informs Sungwoon, who gives a nod back and switch back over to the manual cannons.

 

"Captain, permission to fire on the main Warbird." Sungwoon calls. "We can let the automated system take care of the scattered ones and the main bird needs more firepower. Their shields are too strong."

 

Burnham thinks over for a while before nodding. "Permission granted. Try to aim at the ones in the busiest area. Let's take out a few bystanders too."

 

"Noted." Sungwoon says and starts keying in the coordinates into the manual system while Woojin switches over to the console where his location triangulator is running.

 

"Captain!" Sruthi's sharp voice pierces through the bridge. "We are being hailed!"

 

"By the Klingons?" Burnham asks, and it is not a lot of times Woojin has seen her this surprised. "I swear to god, if they want to talk after ambushing us, I am going to fuck diplomacy in the ass and kill all of them."

 

"Recording Logs, please erase that part." Jisung pipes in and Burnham glares at him.

 

"I don't think it is Klingon." Sruthi says, hand pressing into her earpiece. "We are being hailed in Standard."

 

Even Woojin raises an eyebrow at that. He does not need to be in Communications field to know that Klingons are a very prideful and self-important race, and they had let the Federation know many times how much they loathe the use of a _Standard Language_ based on Earth's tongue across galaxies. They would probably stab themselves with a thousands Bath'leths before they hail a Federation ship in Standard. 

 

"On the screen." Burnham says before taking her seat back at the captain's chair and Woojin goes back to getting the automated weapon system online while still taking a peek at the screen over his shoulders. The screen is pitch black but they can clearly hear the harsh breathing sounds and a desperate _"Federation ship. Come in. Federation Ship!"_ Whoever is hailing them must have their cameras damaged.

 

"This is Captain Michael Burnham of Starship Discovery." Burnham announces. "Who are you and where are you hailing us from?"

 

"Oh my god, fuck, thank you. Shit, we are here. Right in the middle of these Klingon ships."

 

"Hang on." Jisung pipes in. "The initial scan shows only Klingon ships."

 

"Yeah, we stole a Klingon ship."

 

"You stole a Klingon ship?" Burnham asks and Woojin can see a lot of the crew members looking around at each other in confusion. One does not simply steal a Klingon ship.

 

"Listen, we can talk about our backstory all night later, but is there any chance you can get us out of this battlefield first? My crew members are injured and our shields are holding at 10%."

 

"You did not answer the  _who are you_ part of the question." Burnham says and Woojin is pretty sure he's heard a whispered  _fucking Starfleet officers._

 

"We are ... visitors. Listen, we have local Rakharis here with too."

 

Burnham turns to Sruthi and gives the signal to mute the audio. 

 

"Soooo, I am not the only one finding this suspicious, right?" Woojin tests the water as soon as he sees the audio being cut off from their end.

 

"Commander, hold onto the cannons." Burnham says. "I don't want to misfire without knowing for sure that civilians are out there."

 

"Captain, we've been taking heavy  hits!" Sungwoon protests.

 

"I am very much aware. " Burnham replies, stern enough for Sungwoon to stand down with a  _yes captain_.

 

"Sruthi, the Rakharis never responded to our hails earlier, right?"

 

Discovery was supposed to deliver new technologies, mostly mining and energy-sourcing techs to Rakhari V before the ship got ambushed by the Klingons. Rakhari V is a Class E mid-size planet, if Woojin remembers his briefings correctly, occupied by a reptilian-like species, who has come into first contact with Federation only twelve years ago. They had signed a peace treaty with Federation, giving Star Fleet access to explore their world in exchange for technology sharing. To be completely honest, it is not exactly a winning deal for Federation. Rakhari V is mostly a moist grassland with nothing outstanding in its core or structure or environment. The Rakharis need the Federation more than the other way around.

 

"Yes, captain. But that was about half an hour ago, then we lost all communication channels with them."

 

"And Rakharis do not speak Standard."

 

"No, their reptilian oral structure is not built for Standard words."

 

"And the voice we just heard is not coming from a Universal Translator, correct?"

 

"No," Sruthi shakes her head. "Even without all the intonations and speech patterns, there is no Translator that has all those Standard curse words input."

 

"How far off will I be," Burnham says and Woojin can already see the crazy wheels spinning in her head. "to assume that these Klingons are not waiting on us to attack, but are trying to take over Rakhari V instead?"

 

"For what?" Jisung asks. "Rakhari V has nothing of values to Klingon."

 

"Nothing we know of." Burnham corrects him. "It is a mining-based economy. Don't underestimate the type of funky shit you can turn up inside a planet."

 

"So, Klingons attempt to take over Rakhari V." Sungwoon says. "Let's say that's true. Who is that hailing us?"

 

"Better to ask them." Burnham turns back to the screen. "Sruthi, put the audio back on."

 

"Done."

 

Heavy breathing sounds and distant noise of explosion fills the bridge once again as the hailing channel re-opens. "Shit, our shields are at 3%."

 

"This is Captain Burnham."

 

"Listen, I'll tell you everything but you need to get us out of here  _now!_ "

 

"We ..."

 

"Hang on. Here, we have a local Rakhari elder. That's a Federation officer on the other end of the line."

 

"I don't think Rakharis understand ..." Burnham cannot even finish her sentence before a monotone string of noises (that mostly sound like snakes hissing to Woojin) comes out.

 

"You have a Universal Language Translator?" Burnham raises an eyebrow.

 

"Last time I check, they are not Federation-restricted."

 

"No, but they are pretty rare to get." Burnham comments but quiets down as a new hissing voice speaks, and it takes a split second for the Translator to produce a flat Standard voice. 

 

"Good Moon, Captain of Starfleet. I am V'shar, head of Rakhari V Southland mine lake."

 

Burnham takes out her own Translator to speak into it. "Hello, V'Shar. May I know what happened?"

 

"These ... beasts. They came into our lakes and adobes, with a tongue we do not know and the fires we cannot extinguish."

 

Burnham gives an  _i-was-right_ look across the deck and Jisung raises a surrendering hand. 

 

"Hey, can we hurry the fuck up?" The original voice who hailed them interrupts. "Our shields are complete gone."

 

The Translator must have picked up on it because the next thing V'Shar says (courtesy of the same Translator) is "What has mating rituals got to do with shields?"

 

"At least we know  _fuck_ has an equivalent in Rakhari language." Sruthi whispers.

 

"Tell us your position." Burnham says and the voice quickly rattles off coordinates of where they are, and Woojin quickly scans through his now completed location triangulator to see that it is, in fact, right in the middle of the battlefield.

 

"Bridge to Transporter Room." Burnham says. "Please confirm we can beam the individuals from these coordinates on board." 

 

"Negative captain." The response from the transporter room comes in quickly. "The space over there is in too much motion. We cannot guarantee a safe transport."

 

"Shit." Burnham whispers under her breath.

 

Another hit comes, this time more impactful than the rest and Jisung immediately runs to his station. "Shield at 54%, captain!"

 

"Captain, I can exclude the coordinates from the auto weapon system so we can fire without hitting the civilians." Woojin quickly cuts in for a permission although he has been doing that since he has heard the coordinates.

 

"Good, do that. Are they close to the main ship?"

 

"No, captain."

 

"Ok, Commander, fire manual on the main ship. Three photons. Don't miss."

 

"I never do." Sungwoon grins and gets back to work. 

 

"Listen," Burnham says. "Whatever ship-name you are,"

 

"One," the voice comes back immediately. "Our ship is called ... was called One."

 

"Ok, One." Burnham says. "Our transporter cannot work with this much fluctuations in motion so we can't beam you abroad. Is your navigation system working? We might be able to guide you through from our end."

 

"I don't know. Jaehwan, is our navigation system working?"

 

"Fuck if I know! These are all in Klingons. I barely figured out the stats for shields." A distant voice yells back. 

 

"Main ship hit, captain." Sungwoon cuts off and Woojin immediately turns towards the window to see the biggest warbird shaking under the impact of three photons. Woojin would feel sorry for the Klingons abroad that ship if they, you know, haven't been trying to kill them.

 

"Woojin, is the automated weapon system ready?"

 

"Yes, captain. Hopefully we get a 90% hit rate this time."

 

"Fire." Burnham says and Sungwoon nods before hitting the fire button with an unhidden glee. 

 

"Shit!" The voice on the other end of the line immediately shouts. "I thought you excluded our coordinates?!"

 

"Err..." Woojin says. "I did, but I can't exclude them from the impact around you. I gave you a wide berth though! You should not get any substantial hit."

 

"We need to figure out a way to bring them in." Burnham says.

 

"One," Sungwoon says. "How many of you are onboard, right now?"

 

"Er... we have about twenty something Rakharis, plus four of us."

 

"Permission for me to go over, captain." Sungwoon turns to Burnham and says. "One of the mid-size shuttle with cloaking ability would be sufficient. Jinyoung can handle the auto weapon system and their main ship has gotten a critical hit."

 

Woojin honestly thought Burnham would say no because that is an incredibly dangerous mission, to go into the middle of a Klingon warbirds occupied space towards a ship of unknown origins and occupants. But still, Sungwoon is a daredevil - he has to be given that he is the Chief Security Officer of the ship that has a run-in with Klingons every two months, and Burnham takes more risks than Woojin can write lines of code so he guesses it should not have come as a complete surprise when Burnham nods. "Take two officers with you, ones that can operate the shuttle weapon systems. Permission granted to fire at will during your course of mission. One, we are sending a ship over to you. ETA 7 minutes. Stand by for evacuation."

 

"Alright." Sungwoon nods and Jinyoung slides into the seat next to Woojin while Sungwoon straps his phaser to his thigh and reaches for his communicator. "Security, this is Commander Sungwoon speaking. Whoever is available and has training in shuttle navigation and weapon system, report immediately to the shuttle deck. I need two personnel."

 

Woojin really wishes Sungwoon is out of his earshot before a response comes on the communicator. "This is Park Jihoon, Commander. I am heading towards the shuttle deck. I think Trepann is available as well."

 

Jinyoung gives Woojin a look, and Woojin looks away to focus back on his screen; maybe he can upgrade the auto system again so it can target the frequency jammers he has gotten from his location triangulator first, or build some kind of an auto unwanted frequency filterer into the weapon system; anything that can distract him from having to worry over Jihoon because 1. he is not exactly in the position to since they had never really defined what is it between him and Jihoon and 2. even if he is in such position, Jihoon joined the Security Command track fully knowing the risks and dangers because this is what he wants and Woojin understands that.

 

Still, it does not mean Woojin can sit here in peace when Jihoon is preparing to go right into the enemy territory.

 

"Hey," Jinyoung calls him. "He'll be fine. He can take care of himself."

 

"I know," Woojin replies, repeating the words as if they will come true if he speaks them into existence. "He will. He will be fine."

 

* 

 

Woojin tries to track Shuttle 17, travelling towards the coordinates provided by One but they are in cloaking mode, which is undetectable even by Starfleet's own system (which Woojin thinks is a glaring flaw in the system, but that is a complaint for another time). And that is the scary part because Woojin's new and improved automated weapon system is firing at will at the Klingon warbirds and Shuttle 17 might easily get caught in the crossfire before it even crosses the first Klingon line of defence. Woojin did exclude the coordinates of the Shuttle 17's potential travel route from the weapon system but it is pretty much unrealistic and way too optimistic to be hoping for someone going into the battlefield to drive in a direct straight line. 

 

Woojin's worries shortly cuts off when a sudden hit to the hull of the ship sends everyone not belted into their seats flying off to the ground. Woojin is belted pretty securely but even he can feel the whiplash from the sudden impact. 

 

"What the fuck is that!" Burnham exclaims and holds up a finger to Jisung who runs over to help her up.

 

"Their main warbird just fired again." Jinyoung yells, hands running over the console, probably to check the damage Klingons did on their weapon systems.

 

"I thought it was down." Burnham groans. 

 

"They can use their backup drives for the weapon systems," Jinyoung comments. "But that's practically suicide."

 

"Their fleet is dispersing." Sruthi shouts in surprise. 

 

"Sacrificing the main ship so smaller ships can escape?" Burnham says, wiping the blood off of her face. "I'd call that noble if it weren't Klingons. All their military personnel probably boarded onto the smaller ship. First Officer Jisung, stats report."

 

"Shield at 33% and holding. Weapon system reboot ETA 12 seconds."

 

12 seconds is plenty of times to make an escape in space. Burnham has quiet down, staring blankly ahead at the panel in front of her and Woojin wonders if she has hit her head that hard, before she immediately turns to Sruthi.

 

"Hail shuttle 17 now!"

 

"They are in stealth mode, captain."

 

"Then, hail One! I need to talk to Commander Sungwoon in next 5 seconds."

 

Sruthi immediately starts pressing different buttons on her console and it takes a couple of tries for her before a line of communication opens and a distant voice speaks. "This is One. We are boarding the Starfleet Shuttle now!"

 

"Where is Commander Sungwoon?" Burnham cuts in. "Tell the Starfleet officers to get the hell out of there right fucking now!"

 

"Captain, this is Sungwoon." Woojin hears Sungwoon's voice. "What's going on?"

 

"Klingons leave their main ship and escaped. You need to leave that area now."

 

"Klingons won't leave anything in our hand, let alone a main ..." Sungwoon slowly says. "Holy shit. Fuck. Jihoon, take down stealth mode! We need to sprint our way out of here. Discovery, prepare to receive a shuttle travelling at more-than-recommended speed."

 

"Shuttle Bay!" Burnham shouts.

 

"On it, captain."

 

"What's ... " Woojin looks around, seeing the grim faces around him and feeling like he is the only one who does not understand what is going on.

 

"Do you think Klingons are gonna just abandon a main ship for us to board and explore?" Jinyoung takes pity on him, and explains. "I was right. It's a suicide mission. They are gonna blow up their own ship sooner or later."

 

"Shit," Woojin says. His fingers are trembling again, but this time not for himself. Jihoon is right there, in the middle of a space where a Class B Klingon warship is going to self destruct. 

 

"Jisung," Burnham says. "What is the potential radius affected by this size of a Klingon warship?"

 

 "About a quarter A.U., captain." Jisung responses. "Discovery should be out of the inner radius."

 

"Engine room, get ready to take us to RKIII:D9 on my command."

 

RKIII:D9 is the outer moon orbiting Rakhari V and it should be a safe distance away from the the quarter A.U. Jisung has projected, but that also means Jihoon will have to drive faster. 

 

"What about shuttle 17?" Woojin asks because he could not help himself.

 

"We'll wait for them," Burnham replies. "As long as we could."

 

Her voice is hard as steel and Woojin swallows. He fully knows that if shuttle 17 does not make it by the time the main Klingon bird shows any sign of explosion, Burnham would get Discovery out of the danger zone without waiting on them. It is the choice of 400 crew members vs 3 crew members and a foreign ship - the answer is practically set in stone and Federation policy. And this, this pressure of having to make difficult decisions of letting people go, not just people, family and team - this mentality of greater goods is why Woojin refuses to go into the command track and has never aimed for the Captain seat. He cannot do it - he has too much emotion to cloud his judgements, as Jihoon would say, and Woojin sometimes wonders if that is the main driving force behind why Jihoon refuses to be with him, because Woojin would add into Jihoon's emotional load. And during the three months that they had known each other, Woojin had realised that Jihoon is ambitious enough to do anything for his end goal of becoming a Starfleet captain, even if that means giving away parts of him.

 

Burnham's face is calm and void of any motion even as she barks out orders for retreat to Engine room and that scares Woojin. Woojin has known Burnham since they were in Academy, her a senior three years above him when he entered as an undergrad, and he has watched her hardened over the years - it is difficult not to out here, and he is not sure if he wants to see the same thing happening to Jihoon as well. 

 

It is too bad though, that Jihoon would probably not give him a choice.


	2. Chapter 2

"I am going down to the Shuttle Bay," Burnham says, rising up from her chair. "Jisung, you have the bridge."

 

"Aye, captain." Jisung nods and slides into Burnham's seat.

 

"Lieutenant Woojin." Burnham says and Woojin almost jumps from where he is intently focusing on the tracking screen on Jinyoung's station. "Come down with me. You look like you are about to jump out of your skin."

 

"Aye, captain." Woojin nods and follows her, grateful that she is actually offering so he does not have to sneak into the Shuttle Bay later. The ETA for shuttle 17 is about 149 seconds and the Klingon bird hasn't any sign of explosion yet, but Jinyoung has noted earlier that their shields are almost completely down, a pre-requisite step in self destruction.

 

"You know," Burnham says as they both step into the turbolift. "I'd normally suggest against you having so many attachments while we are at war, but I am mostly glad that you haven't changed that much. A lot of us have."

 

"Aww, you soft on me, Michael? I mean, captain?" Woojin snarks. Just because he has feelings does not mean he knows what to do with them, alright?

 

Burnham just rolls her eyes. "Might not end up well for you though. If you fell for someone with Starfleet Captain potential and ambition."

 

"I am not falling for anyone," Woojin mumbles a protest.

 

"Oh Woojin," Burnham says in a tone that implies that she still sees Woojin as the lost undergrad she drunk under the table at the Academy years ago. "If you had fallen any harder, we might have to specify Jihoon as a new form of gravity."

 

Woojin shuts his mouth.

 

Burnham must have taken pity on him because the moment they step out of the turbolift, she changed the topic of conversation to getting Woojin to equip all the existing auto weapon systems with a self-sufficient frequency emitter, which is a workload Woojin is probably gonna lose sleep to but he will gladly take it if that means Burnham would just stop talking about Woojin and his feelings.

 

An ensign hands them two space suits before they enter the Shuttle Bay as the Bay has opened its airlock to receive the incoming shuttle 17.

 

"You might want to steer clear of the taxi, captain." Nolla, the chief transport engineer, says into the intercom of the suit, her gentle voice sharp against Woojin's ears. "They are coming in too fast."

 

"Captain! The first chain of explosion has been set off!" Jisung's voice comes in and Woojin can see tiny explosions all across the Klingon warship through the open airlock. Shit.

 

"What's the ETA of shuttle 17 now?" Burnham shouts into the intercom.

 

"54 seconds, captain!"

 

"Ok, ok," Burnham chants slightly and Woojin wonders how desperate and selfish it would be of him if he just speaks out now to bargain a little more time, just a little bit more out of Burnham. "Jisung, raise Yellow alert for the ship to prepare for impact. We will wait for them."

 

Jisung gives an affirmative and soon there are alarms blaring around them again, but Woojin turns to Burnham and taps her on her helmet before signing a 'thank-you'.

 

Burnham looks surprised, either from Woojin having the audacity to tap her on her helment or from Woojin still remembering the sign language class they took together years ago.

 

"I am not as much of a hard-ass as you think I am." Burnham signs back and Woojin almost wants to cry from relief.

 

"Visual confirmed!" Nolla says and Woojin immediately turns back to face the air lock to see a speck of metal nyooming its way towards them. (So are the fireballs from the exploding Klingon ship but he decides to play blind to them for now).

 

"Shuttle 17 ETA!" Burnham yells.

 

"15 seconds."

 

"Engine room, get us out of here in 17 seconds."

 

"Captain," Nolla yells. "If we cannot shut the air lock in time..."

 

"Well, better hold on then." Burnham yells and attach her space suit to the wall of the ship with the magnetic link, and Woojin clumsily follows suit, grabbing onto a nearby rail for good measure, although if his magnetic suit link cannot hold him steady, his arms certainly won't be able to.

 

Shuttle 17 comes in with a bang, literally - it bangs the side of the opened air lock before crashing down onto the taxi and immediately bumping into the two parked shuttles. A couple of smaller vehicles and machinery flew out of its way and Woojin can see Nolla ducking to avoid a flying petrol canister before pressing down hard on the door button to shut the air lock. Behind shuttle 17 and in between the closing metal doors of Discovery, Woojin can see the storm of fire and debris flying off from the Klingon ship which had finally given into its death mission.

 

"Engine room, now!" Burnham shouts as shuttle 7 clicks its anchoring chains into the nearby wall, effectively grounding itself. That's good, at least they won't go flying when Discovery runs. And it does run, extremely roughly and Woojin's body flies off before bumping into the rails and the wall and the floor around him, like a ragdoll being tied to a pole during a rainstorm. He is going to have so many bruises after this, fuck.

 

The airlock finally shuts down completely after about 10 seconds of Woojin doing the air dance and his body is nothing more than a amalgamation of bruises, and Woojin can finally let go of the breath that he is holding and shakily brings his body up, hands struggling to get his helmet off.

 

Burnham is obviously better at this than him, and by the time Woojin has finished taking off his suit, she is already talking to the engine room through the communicator. Seems like Discovery has caught fire on its southmost tail, but they did make it to RKIII:D9 without any imminent danger or casualties.

 

It is over. Of course, the war is still going on out there but today's battle is pretty much over and Woojin only now realises how hard his heart has been beating against his ribcage. 

 

They had made it one more day.

 

Burnham gives not so much as a reaction to the good news and instead, gathers herself and straightens her uniform before crossing the runway to stand in front of shuttle 17's entrance, arms crossed and legs spread. Woojin might make fun of her for  _posing_ when they are off duty later.

 

Sungwoon is the one who comes out of the shuttle first, looking like he is ready to throw up his entire stomach. Woojin does not exactly blame him.

 

"It's gonna be humiliating if you survived a Klingon battlefield only to die at a taxi runway, Commander." Burnham comments and Sungwoon still has the energy to grin back.

 

"That's all Jihoon, captain. He never did learn how to park gently."

 

Speaking of the devil, Jihoon comes limping out of the shuttle, and Woojin wants to do something, like running up to him and flinging himself upon Jihoon or punching him in the face for being so frustrating or just kissing him hard. He is not too choosy. In reality though, he stays grounded to where he is; Jihoon looks over at him, a smile slowing forming on his bruised face, but Woojin cannot find it in himself to smile back.

 

"Nobody dies though, did they, Commander?" Jihoon says and Sungwoon groans.

 

"I think every bone in my body has taken a beating." Sungwoon grunts but carries himself over to Burnham with the poise of a Starfleet officer. "Evacuation completed, captain. We have 23 Rakharis on board, and 4 humans. A few them are injured, one critical. I've already called the sickbay while we are getting ourselves rolling around in the shuttle."

 

"Good job, commander." Burnham nods. "Any idea who the humans are?"

 

"They won't say and to be fair, I didn't get a lot of chance to ask."

 

"Let's ask now then." Burnham says as two human males step out of the shuttle, a third male in between them, looking every bit like death. There is a visible cut wound on his stomach through the tears of his blood-stained shirt and his face is paler than a sheet of paper apart from his blood-stained lips.

 

"Shit," Jihoon says and immediately runs over to help them with the injured person just as the Shuttle Bay entrance slides open with the Medical staff running inside. "We have a critical here!"

 

The chief nurse immediately gestures Guanlin and another nurse to transfer the injured man into a transporting crib. 

 

"If you are not injured or has a minor injury," the chief nurse says as two strangers motions to leave with Guanlin and the crib that their friend has been put in. "Stay here. Our medical staff will give you a look over, but our sickbay is already overflowing."

 

"We are not just leaving him with you." One of the guys says and Woojin recognises that voice as the man who has been communicating with them earlier. 

 

"You need to stay here and give me answers." Burnham cuts in to the scene in front of here. "That was the deal."

 

"Does everything need to be a deal with you and your Federation? My friend is fucking dying."

 

"So, let my medical staff take him and work on him instead of delaying it." Burnham replies calmly. 

 

"I'll go with him." The other guy says. "One person ain't gonna make your sickbay collapsed, before you protest, miss. Bro, you stay here, and I don't know, talk?" 

 

"Alright," The first guy nods even though he does not look completely satisfied. "Don't let him out of your sight. I'll check up on you guys later."

 

Another human comes out of the shuttle, this time helping a gasping Rakhari and some medical staff runs over to them. 

 

"They are getting worse and worse," the new guy yells from the shuttle. "Rakharis aren't exactly good with this space atmosphere."

 

No, they are not, which is part of the technology Federation is sharing with them - how to build a habitable atmosphere for Rakharis so that they can set their foot out into space and see the wonders of the galaxies themselves. Rakharis has gained space flight capabilities only a century back, but all of their attempts have fallen short due to their failures in building a sustainable ship, both from the lack of knowledge and from the lack of materials. But now that Klingons have waged wars on their homeland for unknown reasons, Woojin guesses they really do not have a choice.

 

"We can provide a Rakhari-like atmosphere conditions in our labs." Burnham says. "My first officer is on it, but for now, please bear the uncomfortableness just a little bit longer."

 

"Captain," one of the Rakharis slides their webbed hand over Burnham's palm, a gesture equivalent to a bow in Rakhari culture. "Many gratitude for assisting us."

 

Man, Woojin is never gonna get used to their hissing sounds.

 

"What exactly happened?" Burnham asks.

 

"We do not know." The Rakhari replies. "We have never seen such a beast before. They came from the outer lake so we had thought it was you who promised to gift us with technology, but it was them and they started salvaging our homes. A lot of us drowned into afterlife, and some of us are still hiding or running in their lakes, but few of us escaped with these two-legged companions."

 

"I think they mean humans." The first guy interrupts but no one pays him any attention.

 

"These beasts are called Klingons, an enemy of the Federation." Burnham replies to the Rakhari. "Do you know if you possess anything they might want? Are they looking for something?"

 

"We do not possess any such thing so valuable for a living to kill." The Rakhari replies but one of the Rakharis who is just off boarding the shuttle speaks in rapid string of hisses.

 

"My mate there says though..." the Rakhari talking to them continues after he listens intently. "...that the beasts were asking for S'hrasinssi."

 

"That is ... a wetland in the northmost part of your planet, correct?" Burnham burrows her eyebrows and asks.

 

"Correct, captain. It seems you had studied our geography well. S'hrasinssi is a barren land. Nothing grows and nothing can be mined from there. It was occupied by the conquerers from the East about three centuries back, but even the conquerers abandoned it because it is a land of rocks and rocks have no use for a Rakhari. It is a land with only a few sy residents right now."

 

Sy is either a hundred or a thousands, Woojin cannot exactly remember from his briefing, but it really sounds like Klingons are asking around for a useless piece of land, but then again, you can never tell with Klingons.

 

Burnham looks thoughtful, but her face immediately turns to concern as the Rakhari in front of her starts coughing and their green face starts turning into an alarming blue. 

 

"Jisung," Burnham says into the communicator. "Please tell me you have the lab for the Rakhari ready."

 

Jisung must have said something back because Burnham gives a relieved sign and orders an ensign to take the Rakharis to the third floor green house labs. 

 

"Take a rest for now. We can talk more later."

 

The Rakhari slides their hand over Burnham's palm again before leaving with the ensign. Jihoon goes along with them, but not without a last look at Woojin and Woojin at least finds it in himself to return Jihoon's smile.

 

The two humans left, the one who hailed them, and the other one who was helping the Rakharis (he looks so familiar to Woojin for reasons that Woojin cannot exactly pinpoint; they both are Asian so maybe Woojin is just mistaking them for someone familiar) turn towards the door too but Burnham stops them in their track.

 

"You still have questions to answer."

 

"Really?" The first guy, who is much larger and noticeably older than the other one, says. "That's no way to treat your guests."

 

"We rescued you. It does not make you our guest. Give me a clear explanation on who you are and why you were on a planet of reptilians with no flight capability."

 

"I don't think they would appreciate being called reptilians with no flight capability."

 

Burnham looks like her patience is running out. Woojin leaves his spot, heading towards the console panel where Nolla is checking shuttle 17 over to grab a console tablet. Shuttle Bay, like the rest of the public area on Discovery, is equipped with monitoring cameras so it should not be a problem to grab a snap of the guy's face and runs a quick face search. He keeps an ear on their conversation though because it is interesting and he is nosy, sue him.

 

"You are clearly not Federation, and I don't think Klingons will trust any human with anything so you cannot be on the Klingon sides as well, and seeing how you have a Universal Translator and every one of you is carrying a non-standard issue phaser," Burnham presses in. "Tell me, what are a couple of smugglers doing on Rakhari V?"

 

The guy does not look exactly surprised, at least, not as much as Woojin is, because damn. Smugglers. Federation has been cracking down on smuggling rings for a while but they got preoccupied by the dooming war with Klingons a few years back. It helps Woojin to narrow his search to prioritise the wanted and crime reports though.

 

"Well, I guess Federation does have some smart people in their captain seats." The guy replies, and he must also be quite smart to not play any game with Burnham. "We were there on business, Klingons attacked, we fought a few, my friend got stabbed with a Bath'leth in the stomach while getting us a Klingon ship, we took the native survivors we found, and here we are. That's the abridged version."

  

"What were you smuggling in? Or out?"

 

"That's not importan..." The guy's answer is cut off short by Sungwoon, who had slipped back into the shuttle earlier and comes back out carrying a box. "Where did you even find that?!"

 

"It was labeled in Standard." Sungwoon shrugs. "And I figured if you grabbed this while running for your life from Klingons, it must worth a ton."

 

The guy groans as Sungwoon kicks the lid open, and Woojin holds his breath, expecting some kind of rare gemstones or drugs or maybe exotic animals, only to be faced with ... grass.

 

"Grass?" Even Burnham blinks. "You were smuggling grass into ... a grassland planet?"

 

"It's Buccheri," the smaller guy speaks up and Woojin's unsettled feeling of having seen this guy  _somewhere_ is growing more and more intense. "It's banned in at least twenty planets."

 

"Because it is basically magic mushroom to some water-based species, natural psychedelics." Sungwoon cuts in. "So you were smuggling in drugs after all."

 

"To be fair, I dragged that box so that Jaehwan hyung can sit while figuring out the Klingon consoles, hyung." The guy says to his companion. "Why don't Klingons use seats!"

 

They are both Koreans, Woojin realises. His face search program is now at 84% completion so he input that information to speed it up. 

 

"Rakharis are not as pure as you thought, you know." The first guy grins.

 

"Great," Burnham massages her temples. "I have a species who cannot be sustained in space and a ring of drug smugglers inside my ship, and Klingons out there. Incredible."

 

"So, erm," the smaller guy says. "Can we go now? I want to get checked out."

 

"Are you hurt?" The first guy turns and asks.

 

"Just a flesh wound, hyung." The smaller guy replies and Woojin notices that his hand has been inside his large jacket, holding over his belly.

 

"We will provide you two quarters for the three of you while your friend gets treated." Burnham says. "I'll decide what to do with you later."

 

"Appreciate it." The guy nods.

 

"Captain," Sungwoon protests. "They are smugglers. Are you sure we should be treating them as guests?"

 

"What are we gonna do? Smuggle ourselves out there into space with no ship and one of us in critical condition?" 

 

"You stole a Klingon ship," Sungwoon replies and Woojin can recognise the reluctant tone of respect in his voice. "I trust you with nothing."

 

"Fair enough." The guy shrugs. "Although stealing the Klingon ship was all Minhyun hyung, at least before he got fucking stabbed."

 

"I take it you are the captain of One?" Burnham asks. 

 

"We don't have rankings. We are all equal in our ship."

 

"Structure and Equality are two different things." Burnham replies. "And who are you? I take it the other two are Minhyun and Jaehwan, but who are the two of you?"

 

"You don't really need to know our names."

 

"I do if I am to have you on my ship."

 

"It's Kang Daniel," Woojin blurts out as his program finally comes to an end and flashes a couple of law reports on his screen.

 

Daniel, now that he has a face to his name, Woojin can stop calling him  _the guy_ , thank god, turns to him in surprise. "I did a search." Woojin shrugs. "And you do have a lot of reports I can pull out information from. The most recent one was just six months ago on Terra V, vehicle theft and assault."

 

"So, you are a criminal." Sungwoon comments.

 

"I thought we established that." Daniel shrugs. "But as far as I am concerned, I have not broken any law under Federation so you don't have any right to treat me as less than a guest."

 

"You were smuggling drugs into a Federation-associated planet." Woojin reminds him.

 

"Yes, but the deal didn't go through, obviously because Klingons killed my buyer, and I don't think you can charge me on just intent."

 

Woojin does not argue with him further on the law and order of Federation, partly because the guy next to Daniel stumbles a bit, causing Daniel to get distracted by him, but mostly because Jihoon has just walked back into the Shuttle Bay with a few medical staff.

 

"The Rakharis have been settled down in the labs, captain." Jihoon says. "But First Officer Jisung says that we might not be able to sustain such an environment for too long."

 

"How long do we have?"

 

"20 hours. Max." Jihoon replies.

 

"Fine." Burnham nods. "Medical, can you check this kid over? Hey, what's your name?"

 

"Daehwi." Daniel says as Guanlin jogs over to where they are, and Woojin drops the tablet he is holding in his hand.

 

How did he not notice? After everything. How the fuck did Woojin not recognise?

 

"Daehwi?" Woojin repeats the name; his voice sounds strange even to his own ear and his hands are shaking again. Jihoon looks back at him curiously but Woojin just numbly walks over to Daehwi. He does not really look like the person that Woojin has imagined him to grow into, but Woojin hasn't had much to work with, only a face that has been fading year by year and a friendship he can barely remember. "Lee Daehwi?"

 

"You found my reports too?" Daehwi asks and grimaces as Guanlin presses a slab of cleansing gel over his wound.

 

"No, I..." Woojin stumbles over his words and Jihoon slides in next to him, mouthing an  _are you ok._ "Your hair looks stupid."

 

Woojin does not know why he said that. Sure, he has been thinking that this kid has some stupid hair, half orange and half auburn brown with sideburns shaped in intricate swirls, but that really is not what Woojin wanted to say when he imagines himself seeing Daehwi again.

 

"You ..." Daehwi snaps his head to look at him, and narrows his eyes, focusing into Woojin's probably gaping face. "Holy shit."

 

Yes, holy shit. Woojin cannot agree any more.

 

"Holy shit. Park Woojin?" Daehwi exclaims.

 

"Yeah," Woojin laughs, half desperate, half uncertain.

 

"Wow," Daehwi laughs as well. "Fuck me."


	3. Chapter 3

The door to his quarter slides open with a swish and Woojin does not need to get up from his seat to know who has just walked in. There is only one other person who knows the passcode to Woojin's quarter after all.

 

Jihoon makes himself home on Woojin's bed and Woojin glances at him to see that the cuts and bruises on his face are gone, so he has probably gone down to the sickbay to get treated. But it seems like he comes straight to Woojin's afterwards because his yellow uniform is still stained with dry blood patches and dirts.

 

"Explain." Jihoon says simply and Woojin bites his lips, staring blankly ahead at his computer screen until the tightly packed lines of code start to merge into each other in his eyes. He has been coding since an hour (or two? It is kind of hard to keep track of times when he is coding) back after he had left the Shuttle Bay. He did not get a chance to talk much to Daehwi because his wound turned out to be not so much a flesh-wound, so he was taken straight to sickbay and Woojin did not want to say anything under the watchful eyes of Burnham and Daniel.

 

"What if I don't want to?" Woojin replies finally.

 

Jihoon seems to be thinking it over before shrugging calmly. "That's up to you, but you look like you need to say something to someone."

 

Woojin thinks it is just so unfair that Jihoon has learned how to read Woojin inside and out during the three months that they had spent together. It is not like Jihoon is a completely closed-off book to Woojin, but sometimes, he does feel like he does not know what goes on inside Jihoon's head. 

 

"So," Jihoon leans over until his face is right in front of Woojin. "Tell me how you come to know a smuggler in a different galaxy. You know you can trust me, right?"

 

"I do," Woojin sighs and leans back into his chair. "I just ... I have never told anyone about this, not even Burnham."

 

"It is me." Jihoon says simply like it makes sense, and Woojin hates the fact that it does make sense. That it is in his instincts to trust Jihoon.

 

"We are ... we were," Woojin starts. "... friends. Best friends, even. He was kind of the little brother I've never had and I had lost."

 

"He is from Earth?" Jihoon asks, voice soft in a way only Park Jihoon is capable of. 

 

"Yeah, his family lived up the street from ours." Woojin nods. "It was inevitable, you know, us becoming friends. We went to the same elementary school and we are the only Koreans in the neighbourhood. Our families clicked and me and Daehwi were just these two hyper energetic kids terrorising the whole neighbourhood." 

 

"I can imagine." Jihoon laughs. "What happened?"

 

"Daehwi's dad was a biologist, and he got relocated when we were 10." Woojin breathes out. "To Tarsus IV."

 

"Fuck," Jihoon exclaims as recognition dawns on his face. "That was 15 years ago, wasn't it? When the Tarsus crisis happened."

 

"Yeah," Woojin stifles out a laugh. "I mean, me and Daehwi protested pretty hard. For them to not move. I wish they listened." Now that he has started talking about this to someone who is not in his immediate family, Woojin does not seem to be able to stop himself. "When the crisis happened, I thought maybe not to Daehwi's family because death and lost seemed like something alien to a 10-years-old, you know. I thought that's something that just happened to other people. But I was wrong. Federation picked up the survivors after the crisis, and I begged and begged my mom to go to the Starfleet HQ to see them. Threatened to run away from home if she doesn't let me so she finally gave in and took me. But we didn't find the Lees."

 

Woojin still remembers that day. Mom took him down to the Fleet HQ reluctantly despite her not wanting Woojin to be exposed to such terrors of the world. And among the sickly and wounded and in some cases, dying population of the survivors that Federation picked up from Tarsus IV, Woojin did not see his best friend. And he did not find any Lee family in the official survivor list Federation has published a month later either. Grief was a foreign concept to Woojin back then, but it still hit him full-forced in the chest until he cannot breathe and woke up every night shaking and crying.

 

"I am sorry." Jihoon says and there is a hand on Woojin's palm so Woojin spreads his fingers, letting Jihoon intertwine them with his until Woojin can gather himself. "It's something no child should go through."

 

"I was sad but safe. Daehwi, god, nobody could have survived the Tarsus crisis that easily."

 

"He seems like a strong kid." Jihoon says.

 

"He was." Woojin nods. "He is. To be completely honest, I never believed he is gone. I always thought he would have run, sneaked onto some shuttles or whined until someone took him out of that goddamn planet, anything. I actually looked for him, you know, when I started hacking. I even hacked into Federation's redacted files on Tarsus crisis."

 

"Wait, is that the hacking that got you a place in the Academy?" Jihoon asks.

 

"Yeah," Woojin gives a dry laugh. "Guess he is the reason why I am here after all."

 

When Woojin turned 18, on the 7th anniversary of the Tarsus crisis, Woojin thought it would be a good idea to hack into the Federation network on the Tarsus files.

 

There had always been rumours and conspiracies around the Tarsus crisis because everything Federation had publicly released on the Tarsus crisis was brief at best and uninformative at worst. Tarsus IV and Tarsus V, back then, were the two planets in a binary-planet system governed by a vaguely dictator-like leadership. Federation had always walked on the tight ropes with the Tarsus government because Tarsus V produces the largest supply of Rossium-K, the fuel they had used heavily in the Fleet starships before warp drives became more and more available. The Tarsus government used that to their advantage, holding the two planets ransom for Federation to meet their demands, which are vaguely concealed attempts at colonising the neighbouring planets, and it is not until they had start killing off Federation people (and some of their own) on Tarsus IV that Federation had started the negotiation. The Federation had drawn heavy criticism back then, for being not initiative enough that only 23.5% of the Tarsus population survived the massacre.

 

There had been a rumour that Federation has a list of people who did not exactly got rescued by Federation, but instead, escaped. It was a list that Tarsus government has kept, an inmate list, if you will, and Woojin thought he could hack into Federation Archive to try and find it. He thought wrong because he was 18 (and also quite drunk when he made that decision), and to be frank, pretty incompetent because while he might be a natural at codes and computers, this kind of advanced hacking requires actual training and knowledge. Federation tracked him down and Woojin thought he would get killed by Mom first before Federation can jail him, but instead they offered him a place in the Starfleet Academy, says he is too good to let his potentials go to waste, and here he is, 7 years later, on a spaceship two galaxies away from home and facing the boy who has gotten him into all this in the first place.

 

"You are right though, aren't you?" Jihoon is saying, thumb gently pressing into Woojin's palm, calming Woojin's nerves down. "He survived."

 

"I should have looked for him harder."

 

"You did not know, Woojin," Jihoon says. "And your misplaced self guilt is not attractive."

 

Woojin manages to squeeze out a genuine laugh. "I am always attractive."

 

"Damn it, you are right." Jihoon grins and Woojin wonders what would be Jihoon's reaction if he just leans in to kiss him. It is not like they hadn't kissed before, but alcohol usually accompanies those times and Woojin is not sure if they are in the kind of relationship to kiss each other whenever they want. Jihoon looks like he would not mind though, with the way his eyes keep flickering to Woojin's lips and face.

 

"You should take a rest." Jihoon says, effectively ending the moment, and Woojin sighs. "How long have you been sitting in front of the computer?"

 

"I want to finish upgrading the weapon system." Woojin says.

 

"Which we cannot use in any near future because we are running low on Fuel."

 

"I want to be doing something." Woojin sighs.

 

"Just rest first." Jihoon insists. "I saw Daehwi in the sickbay. They gave him some sleep powder so he is resting as well. You can talk to him later."

 

"What about you then? You need to rest too." Woojin asks. "Fuck, Jihoon, you were right in the middle of Klingons. I was so scared for you."

 

"Me too." Jihoon laughs softly. "Don't tell anyone this, but I was scared too."

 

Woojin blinks because he does not think Jihoon would downright admit to this. Jihoon has always wanted to make people see his toughness first and softness last (unless of course, he is intentionally leading people to think that he is harmless when he is the very opposite of it).

 

"You did good," Woojin says and he does not think he is just seeing things when Jihoon looks a little brighter. 

 

"I am going to shower first and then eat something. Captain wants us to reconvene in two hours."

 

"Shower here," Woojin blurts out. "We can take a short nap before going down to the cafeteria. Two hours is plenty of times."

 

Jihoon has never spent longer than it took them a game of 3D chess to complete in Woojin's quarter and Woojin feels like he is toeing some kind of unspoken lines by asking Jihoon to be here, but to his own surprise, Jihoon nods. He must have been affected even more than he let on. 

 

"Let me go get a change of clothes first." Jihoon says and stands up. "Also, don't be smug. It's only because lieutenants' quarters have bigger shower rooms than us."

 

Woojin smiles. "You better pay back the favour when you make captain."

 

Jihoon's smile lines crinkle around his eyes before he is heading out.

 

"Hey, Jihoon." Woojin calls and Jihoon looks back. "Thanks, you know, for listening to me and not dying."

 

Jihoon laughs this time, the soft sound settling down Woojin. "You are welcome, Park Woojin."

 

* * *

 

When his alarm goes off, Woojin is only half aware of it, not sure if it is coming from his vivid dreams or from his bedside panel. But then, there is a warm hand on his face, and it feels too real to be a dream, so Woojin opens his eyes, coming face to face with Jihoon.

 

"Good nap?" Jihoon asks, smiling and Woojin feels like he could give up a thousands stars to see Jihoon every time he opens his eyes. 

 

"Good enough," Woojin nods and whispers back. "You?"

 

"I keep dreaming of Klingons chasing me." Jihoon shakes his head. 

 

"Have you been going to your therapy sessions?" Woojin asks. Jihoon said he would, but you never know.

 

"I go." Jihoon mumbles. "To the mandatory ones."

 

"Jihoon," Woojin sighs. "You promised."

 

"I promised I'd go if I get worse, but these are just usual dreams. I mean, I was in the midst of Klingons just hours ago, of course, those ugly fuckers would show up in my dreams."

 

"You've gone on so many missions during the past month." Woojin bites his lips. He is glad that Sungwoon is noticing Jihoon's potential but it also means he has been assigned most of the dangerous missions and it is not good for Jihoon's physical and mental health or Woojin's heart. 

 

"Hey," Jihoon says. "I am good, alright? Don't worry."

 

Woojin sighs and slips an arm around Jihoon's waist. Jihoon does not protest so Woojin pulls him closer. "It's hard for me to not worry."

 

"You help." Jihoon smiles. "You can calm my nerves down."

 

"I am not your therapist or your rehabilitation center, Jihoon." Woojin replies. "Promise me you'd go to more than just mandatory once-a-month therapy sessions."

 

"Jeez, you won't even let me be romantic." Jihoon rolls his eyes. "Fine. I will schedule a session with the doc, alright?"

 

"Is that what you want to be with me?" Woojin asks. "Romantic?"

 

"Well," Jihoon smirks. "Do you think I'd crawl into bed with any handsome lieutenant?"

 

"Good to know," Woojin laughs and pulls Jihoon in until Jihoon's face is buried in his neck, Jihoon's breath tickling past his skin. Jihoon sighs like this is the most content he has ever been and Woojin presses a soft kiss into Jihoon's hair.

 

"Hungry?" He asks and Jihoon laughs into his skin.

 

"Starving."

 

"Well, good thing I made you a whole food synthesizer then."

 

* * *

 

Woojin beelines to the food synthesizer when they reach the cafeteria while Jihoon goes off to look for a table. Normally, the cafeteria is not that crowded because people work on shift and meal times are also accordingly in shift, but it always tends to be over capacity after a combat situation because the whole ship is operating and a lot of them tends to realize how long they have gone on without food only after things have died down.

 

Woojin slots in two cards and chooses army stews for both - a personal favourite of his and Jihoon's, not to sound smug or something but Woojin really outdid himself with this one. He shoves an empty bowl under the food synthesizer and watches the tubes whirl into life before hot soup comes running down and Woojin's stomach rumbles from the smell alone. 

 

"I heard you were the genius behind this one." A small voice says and Woojin looks to his left to see Daehwi standing next to him, an almost empty Kimchi bowl in his hand. "Never thought you'd get into cooking."

 

"This is not cooking. It is code." Woojin says dumbly. "You are out of sickbay?"

 

"Yeah," Daehwi nods. "The cut wasn't that deep. I bumped into one of the broken wirings on the Klingon ship. Good as new now."

 

Woojin wonders where the tiny kid who wailed when he fell off his bike and scraped his knee had gone. 

 

"Sit with us," Daehwi says. "I asked Jihoon hyung but he told me to check with you first."

 

"Who's us?" Woojin asks. "And how did you know Jihoon?"

 

"You tend to make good friends when you are running away from the same death," Daehwi shrugs. "Table 41."

 

Woojin turns around to see Jihoon walking towards him, and looks past him to see Daniel and the other guy from the shuttle - Jaehwan, he thinks - sitting at Table 41. 

 

"Hmm, army stew." Jihoon straight up moans and sneaks his hands past Woojin to grab at the tray. "You good?"

 

Woojin knows Jihoon is asking if he is comfortable enough to sit at the same table with Daehwi and the others, and Woojin appreciates it, that Jihoon would think of him first. 

 

"Sure," Woojin nods and Jihoon smiles before picking up the tray and leaving. Woojin smiles unsurely at Daehwi and left with Jihoon.

 

"We have an option for army stew?" Jaehwan asks once Jihoon puts down the tray in front of them. 

 

"Premium options." Jihoon smirks. Well, it seems at least nice that Jihoon seems to be getting along with the smugglers that he just rescued out of a Klingon minefield, Woojin guesses.

 

"Food synthesizers don't have premium options." Daniel comments and Jihoon shrugs. "We do here."

 

"Urgh, that's discrimination." Jaehwan says as Woojin takes the empty seat next to Daniel.

 

"What's up?" Daniel greets him easily like they have known each other for years. "Dude who got me in trouble."

 

"Got you into trouble for what?" Woojin asks. "Is this about me finding out who you are? Do you think no one else can do the job? All they need to do is bring up police reports from the past year."

 

"It's ok," Daniel grins. "I forgive you."

 

Woojin scoffs. "I didn't ask for it. I was just doing my job."

 

They get interrupted by Daehwi who puts a bowl full of Kimchi and a plate stacked with garlic bread. 

 

"Kimchi and garlic bread?" Daniel mutters. "You are such a strange kid."

 

"I like garlic bread, sue me." Daehwi says and takes a big bite out of the first piece. "God, this is good. I miss eating real food."

 

"You don't eat real food?" Woojin asks, out of sudden curiosity. 

 

"Not on One, we don't." Daehwi answers like that is not the most depressing thing Woojin has ever had to hear. "Protein drinks and carbohydrate bars, mostly. They are easy to store."

 

"And cheap." Jaehwan murmurs. "Seongwo ... anyway, food synthesizers are way too expensive."

 

Woojin picks up on the remnants of a name from Jaehwan and makes a note to check who exactly is in Kang Daniel's smuggling operation later although he is not sure why he is even curious about this. 

 

"You are smuggling a thousands credit chips worth of grass." Jihoon chimes in. "Shouldn't you be like rolling in credits?"

 

"Hah!" Kang Daniel, for the lack of a better word, guffaws. "That's the funniest shit I'd heard in years. Thanks, Jihoon."

 

"Don't be a dick." Jihoon rolls his eyes. 

 

"Do you think we would be doing the dirty manual works if we actually have the kind of credit that can afford us a food synthesizer." Daehwi says and Woojin frowns, stirring at his stew.

 

"I didn't imagine to see you again like this." Woojin blurts out before he can stop himself and four pairs of eyes turn to look at him.

 

"Like what?" Daehwi scoffs. "A criminal?"

 

"Rough." Woojin replies. "I mean you've always had an attitude, but you seems much ... harsher now."

 

"I did not have a choice in how I grew up, Woojin." Daehwi says, voice curt. "It's a miracle I even got to grow up."

 

"What happened to you?" Woojin asks and curses at himself a little. "Sorry, I shouldn't have ..."

 

"That's alright. They knew, and I don't care." Daehwi says, but he is not meeting Woojin's eyes. "I ran. From Tarsus IV after dad .. after we were taken down to camps. I met this girl whose brother was in a street gang on Tarsus V. We and a couple of other people sneaked onto one of the government shuttles to Tarsus V. Most of us died trying to get out of Tarsus V though, even the girl who took me there. But the gang leader took pity on me, I guess, and I was useful, you know, small and lithe and willing to do anything to survive. Pretty useful underground."

 

"Fuck, Daehwi." Woojin swears. "You shouldn't .. shit, you should not have gone through all that."

 

"But I did, didn't I?" Daehwi laughs, but he sounds hallow. "And like I said, I don't care, it was all in the past."

 

"I am sorry," Woojin says solemnly. Daehwi finally lift his head up to look at him, and Woojin feels like he is looking into the eyes of a stranger.

 

"What do you have to be sorry for?" Daehwi says, voice sharp and Woojin fumbles a little, tongue tied.

 

"I just.. I don't know, I should have looked for you harder or do something."

 

"You were a 10 years old kid who regularly ranked 36 out of 40 at school. What are you gonna do? Cry at the Tarsus government until they get annoyed enough to give up?" Daehwi snaps and Woojin does not really expect something this bitter to come out of Daehwi's mouth when Woojin is just here trying to, do what, he does not exactly know, reconnect maybe? But then again, what is he expecting? Too much of life has gone through for the both of them. It was a child's and a fool's dream. This Daehwi is not the Daehwi he has known and missed. Not anymore.

 

"Daehwi," Daniel says. He has been weirdly quiet for the past few minutes, no unwanted smart-ass comments. Maybe he does know how to behave like an adult under all that fake front and swagger. "Why don't you go and take a shower? Or a walk? Didn't you say you wanted to visit the view observatory?"

 

"I am not .." Daehwi protests but Jaehwan pulls his arm around Daehwi. 

 

"Let's go have some tea with hyung, yes?" Jaehwan says, pulling Daehwi up. "I've been wanting to try the Vulcan tea."

 

"You don't even like tea." Daehwi mumbles but goes along, eyes averting Woojin again, and Woojin watches them walk over to the Vulcan Food Synthesizers.

 

"Don't push him too much." Daniel says and Woojin turns to glare at him.

 

"I literally only said I was sorry."

 

"I know," Daniel sighs. "Look, maybe you were his best friends when you were both kids, but we are the one who had lived with him daily for years now, alright? He's under too much pressure. There's a lot going on for us and I don't think you turning up suddenly helps."

 

"Do you think this has been easy for me?" Woojin scoffs.

 

"No, I do not." Daniel says, voice stern. "But forgive me if I want to expect a Starfleet Lieutenant like you to have more composure and understanding than a kid who's been running scared for all his life."

 

Jihoon, who has been quiet all this while, slips his hand under the table so he can grip onto Woojin's thigh firmly, and Woojin calms down a little. Daniel is right. No, Woojin does not have his life easy but he has never had his family or his home stripped away from him, leaving him to run across the galaxies, scared and alone. Plus, he is the older one here. He has to be the more rational one.

 

"I will talk to him when he calms down enough." He finally says and Jihoon pats his knee lightly.

 

"Fraternising with the enemy, are we?" A voice says and Woojin looks up to see Sungwoon standing with his tray in hand.

 

Daniel's grin turns wolf-like. "Why? Are you jealous because you want to be only one fraternising with me?"

 

"Give it up, Kang." Sungwoon says as he slides into the seat Daehwi has evacuated. "Your charm is not gonna work on me."

 

"Oh, but you acknowledge my charm and you are the one sitting here, so ..." Kang Daniel smirks and spreads his arm wide.

 

"I am sitting here because I need to talk to my crew members. And it seems you have finished eating so if you don't mind." Sungwoon gestures, effectively asking Daniel to leave.

 

"Oh, but you just got here. I haven't looked at your face enough."

 

"Oh my god," Jihoon blurts out. "Will you drop the flirting? I am getting nauseous."

 

"Pretty big talk coming for a guy who's been groping his boyfriend under the table." Daniel smirks.

 

"I AM NOT GROPING HIM." Jihoon shouts and immediately drops his hand from Woojin's thigh. A few of the people from other tables turn their heads and Woojin wants to facepalm himself to death. "And he's not my boyfriend."

 

"Ouch," Daniel says lightly. "These two's complicated relationship aside, how was your tactical meeting, Commander Sungwoon?"

 

"How did you know I was in a tactical meeting?" Sungwoon narrows his eyes.

 

"You are still wearing your dirty uniform and your face still have the same wounds. Obviously, you didn't have time to visit the sickbay because you were stuck somewhere."

 

"That's a pretty big conclusion to jump to."

 

"You are right," Daniel grins. "I overheard it from some of the security crew."

 

Sungwoon's face tightens. "You are eavesdropping on my crew?"

 

Daniel shrugs. "It's not eavesdropping if they are talking too loudly in my vicinity. Anyway, tell your captain that I have a proposition for her."

 

"You wish," Sungwoon scoffs.

 

"Now, let's be real here, pal." Daniel crosses his arms and says. "Your options are pretty limited, aren't they? Your ship only jumped to this moon instead of out of this quadrant, meaning your warp drive is probably down. I'd think so given the kind of firepower the Klingons were showing back there. And you were the only ship fighting against tens of Klingon warbirds so you are probably the only Federation ship in this quadrant and your backup will take at least a week to arrive. That's plenty of times to Klingons to relaunch their attack, and by then, you will all be just sitting here, waiting for your death."

 

"Do you have a point you are going with this?" Sungwoon snaps.

 

"Yes, I can help. Tell your captain to have a meeting with me."

 

"Or you can tell me now and I won't punch you in the face, how about that?" Sungwoon grits through his teeth.

 

"Tempting, but no." Daniel laughs and gets up. "You know where Captain Burnham can find me. See ya later, Parks."

 

"I am going to Vulcan pinch him." Sungwoon hisses at Daniel's retreating back. 

 

"As entertaining as that would be," Jihoon says. "Maybe he has a point. He probably knows this quadrant better than us."

 

Sungwoon does not look convinced but he does not say anything. Instead, he turns to Woojin. "Lieutenant Woojin, what's your workload?"

 

"Er.. I've been focusing on upgrading the weapon systems."

 

"Put that as a second priority. I need you to help out the Biologist team first."

 

"Alright," Woojin nods. "I'll talk to them."

 

"And Jihoon."

 

"Yes, Commander?"

 

"We are having a departmental meeting before the all-hands meeting. Let's go after I've finished my meal."

 

"Roger," Jihoon nods.

 

"I'll go off first then." Woojin gets up, gripping at Jihoon's shoulder. "Catch you later."

 


	4. Chapter 4

The biologist team wants Woojin to make a life-signal detector for the Rakharis. There is only one possible reasoning behind why they would need this, but Woojin does not voice his suspicion out loud. The captain will probably confirm it during the all-hands meeting later, but basically, Kang Daniel is right. Discovery is the only Federation ship assigned in this quadrant and the closest ship is Starship Athena, which will take at least nine days at maximum warp to reach to them. And without a functioning warp drive or enough fuel to operate both the back-up navigation drive and the weapon system, they are stuck here until help comes. And given that Rakhari V had been war wrecked by Klingons, Woojin imagines the ship's priority would be search and rescue on planet side, and maybe ship repair as well, but with the kind of resources available on Rakhari V, he doesn't think it is possible for them to come up with anything useful for them.

 

He does wonder what kind of scheme Daniel is brewing that he wants so badly to talk to Burnham though.

 

Woojin wraps up the new software for the life-sign detector in half an hour, using one of the healthier Rakharis for biometrics parameters, and leaves his software and schematics with the engineering team to build the hardware. The all-hands meeting is in 15 minutes and Woojin wants to get back to his quarter for a quick shower. He didn't get a chance to shower before he left with Jihoon to the cafeteria because they were both starving.

 

It is of luck that he ran into Jihoon on the 2nd floor next to the public resting area.

 

"Hey," Woojin calls. "Are you not heading to the all-hands meeting?"

 

"I am." Jihoon steps closer and says. "I am just running a quick errand to go and check our medical and weapon supply."

 

"What for?"

 

"We are doing search and rescue." Jihoon sighs.

 

"I figured as much." Woojin nods and Jihoon rubs a hand over his face.

 

"Search and rescue sucks." Jihoon complains. He had always complaint about search and rescue, not because it is labor intensive and dangerous, but because it is so mentally draining for the teams involved. You tend to remember who you couldn't save and not who you had saved, Jihoon had said to him once.

 

"I know," Woojin says softly and reaches for Jihoon. Jihoon comes easily, leaning in until his forehead is resting on Woojin's shoulder. "I fucking hate war."

 

"I know." Woojin repeats, getting his arms around Jihoon, 

 

"Hey," Jihoon lifts his head and says, staring right at Woojin's face. He has been chewing his lips again despite Woojin having told him multiple times not to. They look angry and red and Woojin has never wanted to kiss anything more.

 

"What?"

 

"Can I kiss you?" Jihoon asks, so matter-of-factly that Woojin almost bursts out laughing.

 

"Am I not obvious enough," Woojin replies. "That you have to even ask?"

 

Jihoon grins, eyes crinkling before leaning in. "You are, but I just want to make sure."

 

As a science officer on the starship Discovery, Woojin is used to making observations and mental notes everywhere he goes, and right now he is observing that (1) Jihoon tastes better without alcohol and (2) holy shit, that's Jihoon's tongue in his mouth, never mind. He'll observe shits later. Jihoon's arm wind up around Woojin's neck and Woojin steps back slowly until his back is against the wall of the ship and jihoon is pressing into him, desperate and urgent like this is the last thing he will ever do. Unfortunately, this is not the last thing any of them will ever do, so they did break apart after a while, Woojin soothing Jihoon's even more reddened lips with soft pecks. 

 

"I really have to go to the supply room." Jihoon whispers and Woojin places a soft kiss on the side of his mouth.

 

"Go. I'll see you later."

 

"Ok," Jihoon nods and gives his hand a last squeeze before sprinting down the hallway, looking back at Woojin with a grin. Woojin smiles back and waves him off until Jihoon turns the corner and disappears. Maybe they really are going somewhere. It is not like Jihoon to be obviously asking for affection, in a public area even more so. Nobody saw them (hopefully), but Woojin does take a mental note to check and erase the recording in this hallway later on. The less blackmail material he can give to Burnham or Sungwoon, the better.

 

He does not have much time left before the meeting though (not that he regrets a single thing), so he changes course and heads towards the main hall instead. He'll be a little early but he can get better seats at least. 

 

Woojin's feet come to a stop though, when he passes in front of the public rest area and sees Daehwi sitting in front of the big glass panel looking over into the empty space, knees drawn to himself and looking smaller than Woojin has remembered. Woojin wanted to go to him, to say something but he does not want to repeat the cafeteria incident, so he holds himself back. But still, Daehwi must have noticed him looming around awkwardly because he looks up at Woojin and gives him a barely-there smile.

 

"Meeting?" Daehwi asks and Woojin crosses the hallway to stand next to where Daehwi is sitting.

 

"Yeah. What are you looking at?"

 

"All of it," Daehwi vaguely gestures. This side of the ship is not facing the death and destruction caused by the Klingons so it looks deceivingly peaceful, distant stars shining and occasional small meteoroids passing by. "I can't get used to a ship being this steady, you know. One was a good ship, got us out of trouble more than enough times, but god, it was so fucking lousy. Something is jamming or making noises or shaking the whole ship at any given time. Seongwoo hyung tried his best to fix it but even he has his limits."

 

"That Seongwoo..." Woojin asks, remembering the part of the name that Jaehwan had uttered earlier. "... he is not on the ship with you, right?"

 

"He is one of us." Daehwi just says simply and Woojin does not push.

 

"I am sorry I yelled at you earlier." Daehwi says instead. 

 

"It is fine."

 

"No, it is not." Daehwi cuts off Woojin's assurance. "All the hyungs still want to treat me like a kid, but I am 24 years old. I am an adult and I need to be responsible for the shits I did."

 

"Alright," Woojin nods. "Apologies accepted."

 

"Isn't it funny," Daehwi says, looking back out of the glass panel into the void of space. "that we actually were supposed to be here as two Starfleet officers?"

 

Woojin sits down next to him, crossing his legs. They were supposed to because that had been their childhood pipe dream. Daehwi had always wanted to be a Starfleet captain, Woojin is not sure now if that was an actual goal in life or just a child's misplaced aspiration but he was pretty firm about it. The reason Daehwi still remembered Woojin's rank in elementary school is probably because Daehwi was always nagging at him to get good grades so that both of them can enter the Starfleet Academy. 

 

Woojin did not tell him it was because of Daehwi that Woojin managed to get into the Academy though.

 

"We are here now, aren't we?"

 

Daehwi scoffs. "Yes, you as an up and coming Starfleet Lieutenant and me as someone the Federation would want to put on trial for. It is fine though. I don't like Federation that much now."

 

"Why not?"

 

"It gave up on me." Daehwi says simply. "When the crisis was going on, do you know they did negotiations for Tarsus V even though there is barely any population on Tarsus V compared to Tarsus IV? All because Tarsus V is a petrol mine and of course, it is more important than the 2 million people on Tarsus IV."

 

"I am sorry." Woojin says. "And before you can protest, it is not because I am blaming myself for you or whatever. It's just .. you were my best friend, Daehwi and you went through all this horrific shit that I don't even know half about. I am sorry that life had been a bitch to you."

 

Daehwi laughs. "Yes, it had been, but thank you."

 

"Why didn't you come back?" Woojin asks. "To Earth?"

 

"I spent my teenage years bound to a gang in a different galaxy and they didn't exactly teach me how to operate a space shuttle for the two years it would take me to drive to Earth." Daehwi shrugs. "By the time I left and came to be with Daniel hyung and Minhyun hyung, well, at that point, I really did not have anything back at Earth for me to try. We never really had a big family and I don't even remember half of my long distance relatives' names or faces. Plus, I think I kind of repressed my memories about my Earth years. No offence but it hurts less that way."

 

"No, I understand." Woojin shakes his head. "But I am glad I found you again."

 

"You didn't find me," Daehwi laughs but there is no mockery in his tone, just pure amusement. "Life is just funny that way. It just likes fucking with me, I guess."

 

"Have dinner with me tonight." Woojin says as the call for all personnels go off in the background ship-wide announcement. "I'll get you the army stew."

 

"Well, how can I refuse such a good offer?" Daehwi grins. 

 

"I need to run but talk to you later, yeah?" Woojin says, getting up from the floor and shaking his almost numb legs.

 

"Woojin," Daehwi calls. "Thank you."

 

"For what?"

 

"Just ... I don't know, for not forgetting me, I guess. I ran all this time, thinking I was alone but it's nice to know someone had been thinking of me even if it's from the other end of the galaxy."

 

Woojin blinks, suppressing his instinct to reach out and pull Daehwi into a hug because Daehwi might not appreciate it right now. Small steps.

 

"You know," he says instead. "You grew up well, even if you are still a little asshole."

 

"Shut up and go."

 

* * *

 

The all-hands meeting goes down the way Woojin had expected it to. They are to focus on search and rescue on Rakhari V while science and engineering team will focus on repair and system upgrades. One team of selected personnels will head towards S'hrasinssi, the wild grassland in the northern part of Rakhari V that Klingons have been after. If Klingons want it so desperately to wage a war on a Federation-associated planet, whatever it is, it must be powerful enough. To even win the war, maybe.

 

Woojin did grimace though when Jihoon's name is announced in the team heading to S'hrasinssi, because of course, Jihoon just have to be capable enough to get assigned to the most dangerous away mission. Woojin is assigned an away mission too, but he is part of the science team that is to be beamed down after the security team has given clearance.

 

Jihoon raises a hand and Woojin foolishly wonders if he is going to protest his assignment, but Jihoon just simply asks. "I didn't hear Commander Sungwoon assigned on any of the away mission."

 

"No," Burnham says. "Commander Sungwoon will be off ship on a separate mission that is on a need-to-know basis. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Degra will be the acting Security Commander. Any more question?"

 

Woojin can see several crew members, including Jihoon, looking around the room in confusion and he too, noticed soon that Sungwoon is not in the meeting. He wonders if this has anything to do with whatever Daniel's proposition was about. He has a heavy feeling that it is. 

 

When the meeting gets discharged, the away teams stay behind for briefing so Woojin heads to his quarter, finally getting that shower. 

 

He was halfway through getting dressed into a clean set of uniforms when the door slides open and Jihoon steps in like it is normal for him to be coming back to Woojin's quarter when the day ends.

 

"I have to leave in three hours." Jihoon says in lieu of a hello. "We have barely four hours before the Rakharian atmospheric conditions get worsen, so we'll have to get them back down to planet side before that."

 

"I see." Woojin nods.

 

"Are you worrying again?" Jihoon asks. "I'll be fine. Think of it as just planet side exploration. You do that all the time."

 

"I don't walk into something Klingons are waging a war for, Jihoon." Woojin says, frustrated. "God, I wish I can just not worry, you know. I wish I just don't care if you either live or die. I wish I don't like you as much as I do."

 

"Me too." Jihoon says. "I wish I don't like you as much I do too."

 

Woojin swears to god, he is going to punch Jihoon in the face.

 

"Fucking asshole" he says instead and Jihoon crosses the threshold, bumping his lips into Woojin until Woojin claws at Jihoon' shirt and throws him down onto Woojin's bed.

 

"I have to meet Daehwi for dinner." Woojin says even as he is taking off his uniform shirt.

 

"And I have to be on some grassland planet for days looking for some vague shit in three hours." Jihoon grins. "So, given that we both have pretty tough things ahead of us, why don't you use this chance now to give us something to remember by?"

 

"Oh, I will give you something, alright?" Woojin grins and straddles Jihoon down before leaning in so that he can finally,  _finally_ , have Jihoon here.

 

* * *

 

"Where are your friends?" Woojin asks as he drops the steaming army stew bowl in front of Daehwi, whom he found him sitting alone inside the cafeteria. 

 

"Minhyun hyung woke up, so Jaehwan hyung is with him." Daehwi answers and gulps down on the stew. "God, this is good."

 

"And Daniel?" Woojin asks nonchalantly.

 

"Don't know." Daehwi shrugs.

 

"He's off to something with Sungwoon, isn't he?" Woojin just bluntly says. "Whatever he was scheming, he got through to Burnham."

 

"I don't know what you are talking about." Daehwi says blithely like he does not even care that Woojin knows he is lying.

 

"You are a terrible liar."

 

"And you are nosy." Daehwi spats back. "Also, for someone who is as nosy as you, one'd think you know enough to cover up the hickeys on your neck. Or do you just want the whole ship to know that you got laid?"

 

Shit. Woojin immediately palms his neck and flushes. Jihoon was a fucking vampire, and Woojin does not check himself in the mirror before leaving because he does not want to be late for Daehwi. 

 

"Here," Daehwi takes off his very colourful scarf - it reminds Woojin of the Earth parrots they had seen in history books - and throws it at his face. Woojin barely catches it before it falls into Woojin's pasta. "Put that on."

 

"You are a fashion terrorist." Woojin comments and looks at the scarf in disdain.

 

"You won't know fashion if it punches you in the face," Daehwi says. "Give it back if you don't want it."

 

"Never mind," Woojin grumbles and puts it around his neck. People commenting on his fashion choices is at least better than people commenting on his sex life.

 

"I thought you and Jihoon are not boyfriends." Daehwi says.

 

"How..." Woojin stutters. "Did you and Daniel gossip about me?"

 

"Intel sharing." Daehwi shrugs. "We are on a foreign ship. It's only wise to learn what we can."

 

"Oh, and my love life is important to this  _intel_ , is it?" Woojin scoffs.

 

"It is entertaining," Daehwi says, unrepentant. "Do I have to do the best friend initiation to Jihoon?"

 

"What's a best friend initiation?"

 

"You know," Daehwi shrugs. "Break Woojin's heart and I'll break your head kind of thing."

 

Woojin wants to protest but his mind has been stuck on the fact that Daehwi is implying they are something akin to best friends. But Daehwi says it so flippantly like he does not want to draw attention to it so Woojin just lets it go. "He will beat your ass Daehwi."

 

"He can try." Daehwi grins back before straightening his back. "Speaking of, lover boy's here."

 

Woojin looks back to see that it is, in fact, Jihoon walking in to the cafeteria. Woojin frowns because he left to the transporter room earlier to get suit up first.

 

"Hey," Woojin gets up from his seat and greets him. 

 

"What is that around your neck?" Jihoon narrows his eyes at him, and Woojin groans. 

 

"Your fault, that's what it is. Everything alright?"

 

"Yeah, they are having some technical issues with the Rakharis' body structure to beam them down so we are delayed by about half an hour."

 

"That's ..." Woojin grins and takes Jihoon's hand. ".. absolutely horrible. What a pity."

 

"Be more shameless," Jihoon snorts but does not pull away from Woojin. 

 

Daehwi fake gags in the background before saying. "Go on. Go and say goodbye to your solider husband before sending him off to war like a 19th century wife."

 

"You know what?" Woojin glares at him. "No more army stew for you."

 

"Ahh, hyuunnnng." Daewhi whines as Woojin snickers and leads Jihoon out of the cafeteria. 

 

"You will take care of yourself, right?" Woojin turns to Jihoon and asks as they reach to a fairly safer hallway, away from the prying eyes. 

 

"I always do."

 

"Well, do it twice harder." Woojin insists and Jihoon laughs before leaning in to kiss him.

 

"You too. Just because you are only beaming down after the course is clear does not mean it is still not dangerous." Jihoon says to him. "I told you before, right? If you let anything happen to yourself, I'll kick your ass."

 

"I'll keep that in mind." Woojin laughs. "Wait for me down there."

 

"I will." Jihoon nods, his lips moving across Woojin's cheek. "Figured it is my turn now."

 

"Hmm?" Woojin asks. "What turn?"

 

"You've waited a long time for me, didn't you?" Jihoon says, looking at him in the eyes. "I will wait for you now."

 

"Sap," Woojin mutters and kisses Jihoon more until Jihoon has to absolutely go to the transporter bay to beam down. Woojin does not accompany him because Burnham is probably there and Woojin does not feel like getting judged right now (also he has another hallway monitoring video footage to erase). But he goes to the opposite glass panel of where Daehwi was sitting earlier, the one that is facing the debris from the Klingon battle and a spinning Rakhari V, and stares down at the destruction and a foreign planet he will have to beam down to in less than ten hours, the one where Jihoon would be waiting for him.

 

The war is not yet over and they are in more danger than they had started out a day ago, but Woojin feels like he is ready, for whatever reckoning that is coming.

**Author's Note:**

> I am setting up for a Nielwoon fic and a 2park fic in this series, entirely depending on when the words in my brain will actually transfer onto the screen.
> 
> Thank you for reading till the end!


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